Celery time

I often complain about the celery in Japan.  It isn't the plant itself.  It is how it is sold.  One stick at a time and more leaves than stick.  It drives me crazy!  My son wants to eat celery as a snack, but he eats a lot more than one stick!

Although I can feel frustrated by it at times, I'm also very, very happy celery can easily be found in Japan.  When I found celery at Costco, I was over the moon.  We could power through a bag like no one's business!

Our neighbors went to Costco the other day and picked up a few things for us, including a bag of celery.  Since then, I've been enjoying the bounty.  We've had celery with hummus and with peanut butter.  We've enjoyed celery salad with apple and persimmon and topped with plain yogurt and honey.

There is one thing that I've wanted to try more than anything.  I was first introduced to celery tsukemono (ts-sue-kay-mow-no) several years ago at a tsukemono shop.  Tsukemono is a pickling process using salt or rice bran or other ingredients, but rarely vinegar.  It isn't super common so whenever I find celery tsukemono, I buy it and gobble it up super fast.

Since I had the stash of celery, I thought now would be a great time to try to make my own celery tsukemono.  With just a 4 simple ingredients, I could bring celery to a whole new level.

I combined the celery and carrot with salt and then put it in my pickle press (that I bought at Uwajimaya in Seattle many, many years ago) with the lemon.  Then I let it sit for 3 hours.  That's it!  It was time to taste my masterpiece.

I was so amazed that the pickled celery turned out so well on my first try.  Of course, I will continue to play with the recipe!  But, I will enjoy what I have created in the meantime.

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8 stalks celery, sliced thickly
1/2 carrot, julienned
1 small lemon
2 teaspoons fine salt

Mix ingredients and put in press (or cover and put a heavy weight on top, like a bowl filled with water).  Let sit for 3 hours.  Refrigerate or enjoy immediately!